​When I was researching the way Nephilim theorists have decided to embrace the Book of Enoch, I looked into some of the ancient attitudes toward the non-canonical text. It’s rather a complex story, but the general trend is that before 1 CE, many Jews embraced the myth of fallen angels having relations with human women to spawn giants, but over time, attitudes changed and the new theology that the “Sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6 were actually the human descendants of Seth took hold. Christians, however, were divided between those who favored the old view and those that preferred the new. The Church Fathers struggled with this for centuries, and you can see the differing opinions in their various writings.

​As part of this controversy, Justin Martyr, who was himself a believer in fallen angels as the fathers of the Nephilim, produced his Dialogue with Trypho in the second century. This dialogue takes the form of a conversation between Justin and a fictitious Jew named Trypho in which Justin explains why Jesus is truly the Jewish Messiah. In chapter 79, he explains why the Jews are wrong to believe that the Sons of God in Genesis 6:4 are not fallen angels:

Trypho, who was somewhat angry, but respected the Scriptures, as was manifest from his countenance, said to me:

Trypho: The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God.

And I, wishing to get him to listen to me, answered in milder tones, thus:

Justin: I admire, sir, this piety of yours; and I pray that you may entertain the same disposition towards Him to whom angels are recorded to minister, as Daniel says; for [one] like the Son of man is led to the Ancient of days, and every kingdom is given to Him for ever and ever. But that you may know, sir, that it is not our audacity which has induced us to adopt this exposition, which you reprehend, I shall give you evidence from Isaiah himself; for he affirms that evil angels have dwelt and do dwell in Tanis, in Egypt. These are [his] words: ‘Woe to the rebellious children! Thus says the Lord, You have taken counsel, but not through Me; and [made] agreements, but not through My Spirit, to add sins to sins; who have sinned in going down to Egypt (but they have not inquired at Me), that they may be assisted by Pharaoh, and be covered with the shadow of the Egyptians. For the shadow of Pharaoh shall be a disgrace to you, and a reproach to those who trust in the Egyptians; for the princes in Tanis are evil angels. In vain will they labour for a people which will not profit them by assistance, but [will be] for a disgrace and a reproach [to them].’ [Isaiah 30:1-5] And, further, Zechariah tells, as you yourself have related, that the devil stood on the right hand of Joshua the priest, to resist him; and [the Lord] said, ‘The Lord, who has taken Jerusalem, rebuke you.’ [Zechariah 3:1] And again, it is written in Job, [Job 1:6] as you said yourself, how that the angels came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came with them. And we have it recorded by Moses in the beginning of Genesis, that the serpent beguiled Eve, and was cursed. And we know that in Egypt there were magicians who emulated the mighty power displayed by God through the faithful servant Moses. And you are aware that David said, ‘The gods of the nations are demons.’ [Psalm 96:5]

(trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith)

​There’s a lot packed into that chapter, notably the assertion that the pagan gods are in fact demons who are identical with fallen angels. But for our purposes, it is most interesting to note that Justin believes that the fallen angels were even then living the city of Tanis in Egypt!

That’s a rather astonishing statement, and a conflusing one. When Justin quotes Isaiah, he seems to be doing so incorrectly. Here, he says “for the princes in Tanis are evil angels” and attributes the line to Isaiah. And yet, when we look at the parallel passage in Isaiah, we find that he said “For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes” (KJV). Zoan is the Hebrew transcription of Djanet, the Egyptian name for Tanis. Tanis is the Greek transcription of the same Egyptian word for a city that was briefly the capital of Egypt. How Justin turned the ambassadors from Hanes into evil angels is a wonderful question and based ultimately on Justin’s misreading of the Septuagint, and the Septuagint’s own error.

The Greek version of Isaiah 30:4 reads (in Lancelot C. L. Brenton’s translation): “For there are princes in Tanes, evil messengers” (ὅτι εἰσὶν ἐν Τάνει ἀρχηγοὶ ἄγγελοι πονηροί). This seems to be due to a typo in the Hebrew used by the translators, where Hanes is mistakenly rendered in characters meaning “in vain.” As a result, the Septuagint translators attached those words grammatically to Isaiah 30:5, leaving only a truncated phrase in 30:4. To that end, they mistook the Hebrew word for princes, śā·rāw (שָׂרָ֑יו), as sharar (שֹׁרְרֵי), meaning “hostile” or “evil,” perhaps due to a transcription error. (Forgive the differing transliterations—I copied them from a Bible dictionary since I don’t know Hebrew.)

The short version is that the word for ambassadors or messengers is the same as that of angels because the word for “angel” in Greek is literally a “messenger.” Justin, accepting the Septuagint’s use of “evil” but misreading “messengers” as “angels,” therefore asserts, preposterously, that the fallen angels were even then alive and living in the defunct capital of Egypt! Justin wrote of what he did not understand. ​

I don’t suppose it surprises you to learn that some fringe history writers, like Chris Relitz in Antichrist Osiris, taking Justin at his word, have alleged that fallen angels were living in Tanis.

I'm curious why you used the KJV instead of the much more recent and researched NLT?

Thanks for the food for thought through the year.

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David Bradbury

2/5/2017 11:01:46 am

I can think of one obvious reason- with the amended translation available since before the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, there is no excuse for not checking the alleged words of Isaiah as quoted by Justin against the text of Isaiah as published in the Bible.

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A Buddhist

2/5/2017 11:23:52 am

Perhaps it is because the KJV is easily available and popular within the Anglosphere, even if it is not an ideal translation.

Nice article, Jason. A rather neat look into the history surrounding the Book of Enoch.

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A Buddhist

2/5/2017 11:22:25 am

And people wonder why it is easy to criticize Christianity. But since even Justin the Apologist was so ignorant of the Jewish Scriptures whence he derived his doctrines, it is easy to understand how other Christian traditions are left vulnerable to similar criticism.

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Only Me

2/5/2017 11:59:10 am

ALL religions are vulnerable to criticism. All religions have adherents that are ignorant of their doctrines. It has been this way throughout history.

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Americanegro

2/5/2017 04:20:22 pm

Except for Buddhism! Tipitaka!

A Buddhist

2/7/2017 12:01:44 pm

Americanegro,

There are schools of Buddhism that are open to criticism, but most of them use the Tipitaka/Tripitaka and call it by the Sanskrit term Tripitaka. See, for example, Nichiren's violent urges and excessive devotion to the Lotus Sutra, which is only found in the Sanskrit Tripitaka and not the Pali Tipitaka.

Tom

2/5/2017 12:03:08 pm

The thought occurs to me that there may have been an older version of the Septuagint still being used at the time.
But since Trypho is supposedly a pious Jew it is unlikely he would have agreed with the Greek translation, this argument would have regarded as authoritive only with the average jewish/gentile reader unable to read Hebrew and this is certainly who it was meant for.
Justin I think would never have used it in a scholarly debate for the obvious reason it is so easily refuted.

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Shane Sullivan

2/5/2017 12:26:32 pm

"I don’t suppose it surprises you to learn that some fringe history writers, like Chris Relitz in Antichrist Osiris, taking Justin at his word, have alleged that fallen angels were living in Tanis."

Well yeah, Jason, but in Relitz's defense, doing actual research is hard work!

Relitz actually does try to justify it--he goes into an analysis of why the Septuagint is right and all other translations are wrong, offering a conspiracy theory about how the Church is trying to suppress the history of Fallen Angels.

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Shane Sullivan

2/5/2017 01:52:43 pm

So he really has done his homework. =P

At Risk

2/5/2017 12:33:05 pm

Angels, both good and bad, are commanded through principalities. One could say there are princes, and a command structure involved, not unlike the military.

For gods as demons, we can look at the idea of "animism" of a sort, where actual physical structures/images can, indeed, be indwelled by demon spirits. Native Americans believe water and trees and rocks, etc., can be indwelled by spirits, so it's not much of an extension to see that other peoples once believed that demons, as spirits, could indwell physical things, to give life to the inanimate. We may recall a staff turning into a serpent, and back again.

On the "good" side, we have God indwelling believers.

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V

2/5/2017 03:58:49 pm

Except that the hierarchy of angels you're referring to wasn't really around until the FOURTH century--a good two hundred years after this Justin fellow.

And pagan gods as demons is much, MUCH simpler than that--"if it's not Christian, it must be a demon." No "indwelling" required.

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Americanegro

2/5/2017 04:18:25 pm

"Angels, both good and bad" don't exist, so that's problem solved. According to you, Native Americans believe a lot of nonsense. That doesn't particularly bother me. If we "recall a staff turning into a serpent" we recall something that didn't happen and might want to get a psychological evaluation in the emergency room.

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Brian

2/5/2017 12:33:46 pm

Great detective work. It is really important to understand how much of what we think we believe is because somebody mistranslated something ages ago (or recently, for that matter). Since our US population is mostly, and proudly, monoligual and dependent on translations, it is even more important to publicize such things.

Having read the Septuagint (and New Testament as well) in the original Greek and compared it to the KJV and other translations, I have to confess amusement at the number of earnest believers who seem to think God spoke that durned high-falutin', old-fashioned English.

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V

2/5/2017 04:02:01 pm

The really fun part is that at the time it was first translated into English...well, English ITSELF was not at all "high-falutin'"! So English translations were the low-low-low-brow version at the time.

I love how people just don't GET that language changes over time and that yeah, once upon a time, that was how even street toughs ACTUALLY TALKED.

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Americanegro

2/5/2017 04:13:25 pm

Sounds like you're glossing over quite a bit there. And when I say "gloss" I mean.... well, what word comes to mind?

A Buddhist

2/7/2017 12:03:30 pm

One reason why I hate myself is because I am monolingual. But I am not American.

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Americanegro

2/8/2017 09:43:24 am

I hate you for both reasons, being monolingual and not being American.

Just kidding, I don't hate you.

Americanegro

2/5/2017 04:09:02 pm

An object lesson in why the Old Testament should be read in Hebrew and Aramaic (and NOT Greek) and the New Testament should be read in Greek.

I suspect that anyone who says they've "read" the Old Testament in Greek has "looked at" the Old Testament in Greek. Reading it in English is difficult enough. If the word "liar" comes to mind, well I can't control peoples' thoughts.

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Bob Jase

2/6/2017 01:40:38 pm

I've had some really obnoxious neighbors but I never thought they were nephilim.

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Observant Jew

2/8/2017 09:47:14 am

Since the dawn of time, Nephilim have been poison for property values. When they move into a neighborhood it's the beginning of the end.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.